Join Me For An Epic NYC Night!

If speaking English like a native speaker is your goal you’ve GOT to watch this video. Come along with Tom and I on an epic NYC out. You’ll meet part of my team, join us for the evening and learn tons of pronunciation and vocabulary!

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Video Transcript:

Here at Rachel’s English, I work with people from all over the world. I have a social media manager in the Philippines, a customer support specialist in Pakistan, a project manager in Jamaica, teachers in the US, and a video editor in the UK.

Most of these people, I have never actually met in person. But one freezing New York City night, I got the chance to meet one of my contractors. Come study real English conversation with me and my colleague Tom as we experience a night out in New York City where we get to meet Johan, go to a jazz club and a comedy show.

Johan has been a video editor with Rachel’s English for several years. And during this time, he’s also been working on a movie. When the movie made its international premiere in New York City, Tom and I couldn’t pass up the chance to see it.

People called them mad for their love of music. They called me mad.

But now…

Is it about 7 foot of instruments?

Uh, it is a one string slide bass cord. the Babatoni.

Could you play us some of this wonderful instrument?

We got to sit down with Johan after the screening.

That was really cool.

Thank you very much.

Great stuff.

Thanks Tom.

Yeah.

How should we sit?

Well, that’s I feel like closer is better.

Yeah.

Um, okay. So, this entire time I’ve not really known how to say your name.

Johan.

If you don’t know how to say someone’s name, it’s okay to just ask. I had only seen it written and it seemed to me that it could be pronounced a couple of different ways. In my mind, it was [yoʊˈhɑn], but he told me it’s actually [yoʊˈhæn].

I’m Rachel, I have a background in opera singing and I’ve been teaching the American accent to non-native speakers for over 20 years. Scan this QR code or go to rachelenglish.com/free to get my free course, The Top Three Ways to Master the American Accent. It will blow your mind. It will give you totally new ideas on how to get the sound you’ve always wanted.

It’s so cool to meet you.

You too.

So, how do you know how long you’ve been working with Rachel’s English? Has it been like two years?

No, it’s been longer. I think it was like around 2020, I think.

Okay.

Yeah.

Really?

Yeah.

I love knowing that that the work that you’re doing with Rachel’s English is helping to like create real art.  

Real art. What do I mean by this? I don’t consider my YouTube videos to be art, though they are my creation and my passion. But films like this can really move and change a person. I consider that art. So, I used the phrase ‘real art’ to differentiate the work he does for my YouTube channel and the work he did to produce this film.

Real art.

You say yours is not art?

I mean, I say, it’s so cool to see something come to fruition that I feel like in a way Rachel’s English community has been able to support it happening.

Absolutely.

Come to fruition. What does that phrase mean?

It means to exist. If it’s an idea or a project, it means to be successfully completed. For example, “I was hoping to write a second novel, but none of my ideas developed into much, and it never came to fruition.”

“We worked so hard on this film, it’s very emotional for me to see it come to fruition on the big screen.”

Notice the word fruit in there. From a seed or an idea, with sun and rain or hard work, it turned to fruit. The idea came to fruition.

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

I think that’s so cool.

Because I mean, you know, it’s the bread and butter, you know, as we say in bread and butter, the work.

We just talked about coming to fruition and now we’re talking about bread and butter. You know what bread is, you know what butter is. But the phrase bread and butter means something other than the foods. This phrase means your livelihood, your means of support, what sustains you.

For example, I love creating YouTube videos, but that revenue doesn’t pay the bills. My online courses, Rachel’s English Academy, is my bread and butter.

We’ve been doing most of this unfunded.

Unfunded means without financial support. There were no investors here. This is going to go with another vocabulary word that will come up later in this conversation.

Yeah.

As an editor.

Mhmm.

Uh, and definitely as a director. So, um,

Editor. This is a word that will almost always be pronounced with a flap T in American English.

It sounds just like the D. It’s just a flap of the tongue on the roof of the mouth. The T between vowels sounds just like the D between vowels. Editor.

This is different from how he pronounced it in British English with the tt, true T sound.

Yeah, it’s been uh you know really grateful to have been working with you all this time and yeah, I just love the work.

Yeah. I just I love the flow. It’s like the students get something, they pay for it. It pays for you. Art is created and the world is a better place.

Definitely. Absolutely.

I mean, and you for this project, I mean you traveled all over the place.

Absolutely, yeah.

And so that is, how does that happen?

Um, it’s because our lead producer is a what we he’s a tech entrepreneur, actually.

A tech entrepreneur is someone who starts a business focused on technology products or services.

Entrepreneur. This is a pretty tricky word to pronounce. I made a video dedicated to it and I’ll link to that video in the video description.

And he met my brother when he was ,he lives all around the world. He’s a digital nomad.

Digital nomad. Notice again in American English, I’m going to make that T in the word digital, a flap T. Digital. Digital nomad. That’s because it comes between two vowels, but Johan pronounced it with a true T.

Digital. A digital nomad is a term we use for someone who can do all their work on a computer and online. Someone that doesn’t need to go into work the way a doctor, a nurse, school teachers, restaurant workers, and so on need to. They can work from anywhere. So, they choose to move from place to place, often traveling internationally as they work.

So, he’s in this lifestyle anyway. And he was traveling north from South Africa to Malawi and he met my brother and um, so he has this concept of bootstrapping.

Bootstrapping. This is the word that ties with the word we were looking at earlier ‘unfunded’. If a business or project is unfunded, that means there are no investors putting money into the project. This means you have to bootstrap it. You have to start doing everything yourself as cheaply as you can, getting money or resources for one part of the project at a time.

This is what I did with Rachel’s English. I started doing everything myself and was living at my parents’ house for a year. Eventually, the project started to make some money and I was able to hire out some of the tasks like video editing to people like Johan.

So, we just bootstrapped everything. So we um, we just said right this is really important like California. We were like oh, we can’t miss, we can’t miss California and luckily, so that we just raised the money for that leg and then we did that and then we said well we need you know, we need to go to Malawi we raised money for that.

They were bootstrapping. Raising money for one phase at a time. Raising money can mean two different things. It can mean to get money from investors, people who will be expecting something in return. Or it can mean to raise money as donations from people who are giving money to the project and not expecting anything in return.

So, it’s just kind of raising the money you need for the next step and just getting the next step done and getting it in the can.

In the can. This is an idiom that means finished or completed. For example, “What’s the status of the Smith project? It’s 90% done. Okay. What’s the status of the Miller project? it’s in the can.”

And then when we had all that momentum, we just managed to just get it finished.

When you have momentum in a project, that means you have energy building towards the completion. It’s really hard to finish a project if there’s no momentum.

Yeah.

Honestly, I feel like bootstrapping is exactly how I built my business.

Yeah, yeah.

One thing at a time. You’re using so many great idioms. You also said get it in the can.

Oh, yeah. Did I?

I have no idea.

Yes. So, in post-production, we’ll have a fun time.

Oh yeah. Certainly, yeah.

Post production in video editing is what I’m doing right now. I’m taking all the parts that were produced, all the video parts, and editing them together. When I see a phrase like in the can that I want to define, I switch on my mic in post-production to get this voice over in the can, so I can use it in my video.

Sounds good. And obviously, a little bit of the difference between British and American English as well.

Yeah.

Okay. Now, as an editor of my videos, is there something that you feel like you’ve noticed is a huge difference between American English and British English? I know I’m putting you on the spot here.

If you put someone on the spot, that means they have to answer a question with no preparation, usually in front of other people or in front of an audience.

Like you just said, spot. Like that. We would definitely say spot.

Yeah, it’s so much the T.

That we still have the, we call it, I don’t know if it’s because you call it the stop T but we call it the glottal stop.

Yeah.

So stop. I mean uh, what was it, what or um, it’s the T doesn’t stop so that part is the same but it’s the sound of the vowel that’s different.

Yeah. Here’s a question. Does British English ever have a flap T like in the word party or city?

Well we’ve started being Americanized.

Americanized. They’re starting to pick up this habit from Americans a little it.

What are some other things that can become Americanized other than speech? Other cultural things like food and music? With the frequency of McDonald’s and Starbucks, it seems like a lot of places are getting a bit Americanized.

So, even though a little bit, yeah, I would say a little bit.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

But a lot of words we will still do at like a British. Yeah.

A lot of. A lot of words.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Right. We’re like a lot of a lot a lot of words.

A lot of words.

Yeah.

Takes too much work.

A few I think a few of the words we do. Yeah.

Yeah.

So, out of all of the places that you traveled to make this film, what was like the most memorable?

Things can be memorable for two reasons. They were either great or they were terrible. They made us feel a strong emotion and that really sticks in our memory. These events are memorable.

I mean, I think I think Joshua Tree is one of them.

Mhm.

Zanzibar, Malawi. Malawi was like incredible, yeah.

When did you come into the project?

I used the phrase come into the project because I thought maybe the idea for the film had already been in the works before Johan started helping out with the directing and editing. Come into in this case means to join. It can also mean to receive. He came into money when his aunt died and left him a small fortune.

When did the, obviously you have footage going back to 2017, but—

Footage. Another flap T in American English. That would be a true T in British English. Footage. Footage is recorded film or video. For example, they showed footage of the fire on the evening news. I lost my memory card, so all the footage from my vacation is gone.

I don’t think that the idea for the movie started back then, did it?

Uh, so 2019 was the first time we started filming it and I just made a short film, put it on YouTube to see what would happen. We got one selection for a festival. Um, and then after that, um, we decided to turn it into a feature.

A feature film is full length, different from a short film. Rules vary, but it might need to be at least 40 or 60 minutes long to be considered a feature film.

When Tim the producer as I mentioned, when he stepped on board.

Step on board. This is just like the phrase I used earlier, to come into the project. It means to join the team of people working on a project.

We were already thinking of developing into a feature and he  sort of enabled us to do that as a producer, yeah.

If someone or something enables you to do something else that means it made it possible. For example, “The scholarship enabled her to go to college. This implies that she would not have been able to go to college without the financial help of the scholarship.”

I know that it made a premiere in the UK already.

Yeah, world premiere.

A premiere is the first public performance of something like a movie or a play.

And are there any other film festivals lined up already?

Here, the phrase lined up means already planned, already on the calendar. He’ll have surgery on the 13th and we already have his two follow-up appointments lined up.

One in Italy. So, that’s going to be the European premiere in Italy. So, that should be fun. And then, yeah, we got to figure out because we should be back here in the Lincoln Center in uh, New York in uh, May or something.

Really? What is that for?

Uh, it’s another African festival. Yeah.

Now, is there any chance that the band’s going to be able to come for that?

Uh, not for that one, but we are talking in talks about them coming over again to the US.

Yeah.

In talks. This means formally discussing something. We often hear it when referring to countries and diplomacy. The leaders are in talks about reaching a ceasefire.

I would love to see them.

Yeah.

Do you know that I trained as an opera singer?

Oh, yeah. Because I keep putting you in.

Yes.

I trained as an opera singer. I worked with professionals for many years working on that skill and I also did some performing. Johan knew this because he’s edited in photos of me from time to time when I speak about my background in a video.

Um, and I just right from the moment the voice, it’s so pure and clear and um, I don’t even know how to describe it, but it is beautiful. I love the voice of the man who’s playing the 7 foot long.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I love just the purity and there’s so much joy. I feel like, you know, Tom and I were sitting next to each other in the movie and I feel like there were multiple times where I would notice that I was just doing this as I would be watching the music and then he, I would I could sense him doing the same thing.

Oh yeah, there’s so much joy in the music. I love it.

That’s so good. Rachel. I think we might have to wrap quite soon.

Um, so.

Okay.

If that’s okay.

Yes. Thank you so much. It was so fun to meet you. Thanks for inviting us.

That’s alright. Yeah, we’ll obviously keep in contact and um yeah, thanks for coming. I appreciate it.

Yeah, thank you.

I love documentaries and it was a great way to start our night.

Okay, so how are you looking forward to the jazz?

I am very much looking forward to the jazz and I actually did a little research that tomorrow, uh, we are two blocks from our hotel,

Yeah.

Is a jazz record shop that is on the eighth floor of a residential building. like you have to get buzzed in and then you go and it’s apparently like incredible stuff.

If you get buzzed into a building, this refers to ringing a bell on the outside of the building that rings the particular apartment where you’re going. That person can press a button that will unlock the door downstairs without having to go down. And usually when that happens, the door downstairs buzzes so you know it’s unlocked. So, the phrase buzz me in is used. I buzzed her in, but she hasn’t come up yet. She must have run into a friend in the lobby.

And obviously, you’re going there.

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

If anyone wants to send Tom a gift, ever, um, send them a record. Send them your favorite vinyl.

That would be amazing. Yeah.

A record. Vinyl. It’s not very often that the letter Y makes the schwa, but here it does. Tom absolutely loves vinyl.

I will—

I should get a P.O. box just for that.

Check the description below for my home address.

Hey, by the way, did you get a wreath yesterday?

Oh, yes.

Merry Christmas!

Thank you.

This is a wreath. I sent Tom one in December for Christmas. Just like writing and wrong. The W in wreath is silent. Wreath.

By the way, did you get a wreath yesterday?

Oh, yes.

Merry Christmas!

Thank you. No, I have literally. I have messages from Julie because she said, “Tell Rachel.” I did not receive it, she got it. And uh it’s—

Wait, was it today?

No, no, she got it yesterday, but I have really not really been down in that room. But um, I hear it’s absolutely gorgeous and there are bells.

Really?

Heading to Smalls Jazz Club.

So, how many times have you been here, Rach?

Oh, I don’t know. 10 or 12, probably.

Really?

But it’s been a long time.

What I like Roy Hargrove, Margaret Miller.

I love The Eleventh. I love um, Coltrane. I love Wynton Marsalis. I love a dude named Grant Levin. Have you heard of him?

Alright, we made it.

Yeah, we did.

And do you remember what we’re hearing?

No.

I don’t either.

No, it’s a quartet.

Oh, I thought it was a quintet.

I think it’s a quartet.

Really?

I don’t know. We’re about to find out.

My favorite is a trio.

1, 2, 3.

Alright, we’ll see.

We loved the set. Out of respect for the musicians, I didn’t film any of their performance.
You know what we needed next? Pizza.

Tom, they have crab.

I don’t know about that.

I’ll go for that.

I mean, this one right here is the classic OG, but it will give you the worst stomach ache of your life.

OG means the original of something usually respected. The classic OG pizza at Artichoke Pizza in New York City is absolutely delicious, but it has a ton of cream and always gives me a huge stomach ache.
Oh, yeah. That looks good. Sicilian looks really good. That Sicilian looks amazing.

Yeah. So is that,

Hey, can I get a Sicilian slice?

Yeah. Thanks.

Can I get a.

Yeah.

Tom used the phrase, “Can I get a” for his order? There are lots of different phrases we could use.

I’d like a. Could I please have a. I’d like to order a.

Notice how all the words are really linked together. Can I get a. And then there’s that American flap T to link ‘get’ and ‘a’.

Can I get a.

Can I get a Sicilian slice?

What a good deal.

What a good deal. With that flap T linking what and a. What a. What a.

What a good deal.

What a good deal.

Incredible.

Amazing price.

Then we went to a show at the Comedy Cellar.

I had to pay a resort fee.

A resort fee is something extra that some hotels or resorts charge on top of the room fee and the taxes. It’s for amenities like a pool or a gym. In this case, it also got us a $20 credit for breakfast. Notice in the word twenty, I’m dropping the second T. That’s really common in American English in this word. It’s more common in the British English pronunciation to say that as a true T, twenty.

Twenty times.

Till twenty-seven.

Till twenty-six.

For twenty-five minutes.

Twenty fourteen.

Twenty paintings.

And that covers $20 towards your breakfast. So, in the morning if you want to have breakfast there at the hotel, I guess like just ask them how it works, but I think you might have to give them your room number and then you’ll get $20 off.

That’s amazing. I love a good hotel breakfast.

Do you?

Yeah.

What are you going to get?

What are you going to get? We’ve studied the linking between words in several phrases in this video. Let’s look at this one. What are becomes what’re, with a flap T.

You becomes yə. What are you? What are you?

Going to becomes gənə. What are you going to? What are you going to? Try that with me.

What are you going to?

You have to simplify your mouth movements to match that pacing.

What are you going to get?

Oh, you know what? By the way, the word breakfast, I was working with David in my live class and he was saying like breakfast.

Yeah.

And I was trying to think of other common words like that where there’s a schwa, but our students don’t use schwa. So, just put that in your mind.

Well, breakfast is actually weird because neither of the words are pronounced the way they would normally be pronounced. You’re right. Break fast. Yeah. Anyway, what’s your go-to breakfast order?

This one.

Hi.

While Tom and I were recording this conversation in the line for the comedy club, the people in line in front of us got curious.

Rodeo is my name.

Rodeo?

Yeah.

What do you mean? You’re wearing a—

Yeah, I’m literally all my clothing’s monogrammed. It’s all his own name.

Everyone’s got, everyone’s got a thing, man.

Are we doing this?

We stood in a freezing line. They don’t let you take cameras in, so I didn’t get any footage of the show, but it was good.

We’re in the cab going home after comedy. We’re so tired. It’s 1:00 in the morning.

Yeah.

Um, okay. So, we did a movie.

Yep. Banjo Boys.

Banjo Boys. We did jazz.

Yeah.

We did Comedy Cellar. Um, what did you think of Comedy Cellar?

Loved Comedy Seller. Laughed incredibly hard.

Yeah.

Uh, really needed it actually. It was really nice.

It was funny and awkward.

Yeah.

Standup is awkward.

The show we went to was a standup comedy show where one comedian takes the mic at a time to tell jokes and work with the audience.

What was, I didn’t feel like it was that awkward.

We just talked about all the ways in which it was uncomfortable and you didn’t know if you should be laughing at that or not.

But that’s more like a personal awkward. It was more like it made me think about things which is exactly what comedy should do.

No, it’s Yes, it’s a personal awkward.

Yeah. But I didn’t think any of the comedians were awkward, which is where it gets pain.

No, I agree. I have been to stand up before where the person was awkward and that’s awkward.

Train wreck. Yeah.

Train wreck as an idiom means a situation that fails, that doesn’t go according to plan, where things go badly. So, if you go to a stand-up comedy show where the comedian is awkward and no one laughs, that’s very uncomfortable. It’s a train wreck.

Train wreck. Yeah.

Okay guys, we’re going to end an excellent night here. Thanks for following us on this fun evening in New York City.

Yeah. Very fun. What a great city.

What a great city. Good night.

Good night, everybody.

The next morning, as I was working in my hotel room, I listened to the Madalitso band. I really love their music. I’ll link to their album on Spotify in the video description.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this video. I absolutely love teaching about the stress and music of spoken American English. Keep your learning going now with this video and don’t forget to subscribe with notifications on. I absolutely love being your English teacher. That’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.

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